FL FL - Dylan Helms, 16, Missing Child Alert, double-leg amputee, in wheelchr, ran away from youth shelter, Santa Barbara & Whitaker, Naples, 26 Sep 2024

[atomicsciencegal]

I found this article from March 2, 2023. Dylan Myers, age 14, was missing from Fort Myers from February 2, 2023 - March 2, 2023. There was no mention of him being an amputee at that time, so the amputation must have been within the last 18 months.

I'm very worried about him. I hope he was able to find shelter before the storm hit.

Missing Child Alert canceled for Fort Myers 14-year-old

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says Dylan Helms has been found safe.

www.wtsp.com

(Scroll down to see the 2023 FDLE missing poster.)

Do we know the reason for amputation? I don’t want to pry into his personal medical history but if it’s due to diabetes or another health condition that very much changes the urgency.

Sorry, friends. My son is a teenaged wheelchair user and this has just hit me hard. I hope Dylan is safe with friends.

 

[airportwoman]

Hold on. Is this implying an able bodied person could not catch up with someone in a wheelchair?

If he was going downhill, that could definitely be the case.

 

[airportwoman]

Do we know the reason for amputation? I don’t want to pry into his personal medical history but if it’s due to diabetes or another health condition that very much changes the urgency.

Sorry, friends. My son is a teenaged wheelchair user and this has just hit me hard. I hope Dylan is safe with friends.

Diabetic amputations are extremely unusual in teenagers, although I suppose it's not impossible.

Most likely, if it was recently, it was from an accident, or if it wasn't, a birth defect.

 

[Snoopster]

If Dylan was in a youth shelter is it possible he was running away to join his old friends from his old neighborhood? It's challenging enough being a 16 year old, let alone being in a shelter and having a physical disability.

Where are you Dylan? You have your whole life in front of you and many people are worried about you!

 

[Snoopster]

When I read that 'he got away too fast' I pictured a busy urban area. And then I looked at the area and it's fairly suburban/rural. Presuming Dylan was staying at Youth Haven there are long driveways and easy sightlines. I'm finding the story a bit unbelievable. But of course this is JMO and I don't know the circumstances.

google maps Whitaker and Santa Barbara, Naples

Sixteen-year-olds are looking to spread their wings, but I'm guessing that a youth shelter will have many rules. I'm sure this must be frustrating to most of the youths there.
Did Dylan have a fight with staff? Did he miss his family? His old friends?

I'm hoping he's holed up somewhere with a friend or family member who feels his pain.

ETA: Youth Haven describes themselves as, "Providing Home, Hope and Healing to abused and neglected children & teens in Southwest Florida." Login • Instagram

 

[moonrise]

FWIW, I've got a bad knee and use a manual wheelchair when there's a lot of walking involved (shopping mall, large grocery store, etc.). Even though I'm not young or slender, I can easily "outrun" my husband. He loses me in the stores all the time. (He doesn't find it nearly as amusing as I do! ha ha)

Hope Dylan is found safe, and soon!

 

[katydid23]

I'm thinking that maybe, by the time the caretaker saw him leaving, he had a big head start already. If so, it would have been hard to catch up to him. And as said, they probably had others in their care, and couldn't just run out of the building.

I'm wondering if he left spontaneously, or if he had it pre-planned? I'm hoping pre-meditated so he may have had someone to meet up with and take him in? Does he have any family in the area?

 

[Snoopster]

Me too! plus some eyebrow action.

ETA picture of naples on friday night ,,There should be a ton of people to who have pictures of the area ,I dont know how bad it got in there .
Shocking images, social media videos of Hurricane Helene damage, aftermath in Florida picture 12 is the photo from naples

Staff at Youth Haven posted (the day after Dylan went missing) that "All children and teens in our care are safe, and our campus experienced only minimal operational interruptions." So it doesn't seem that the hurricane hit that specific area very hard. Of course we don't know where Dylan went so I am still worried that he might have been in harm's way. But I do take some positives from this comment.

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[Soulmagent]

Staff at Youth Haven posted (the day after Dylan went missing) that "All children and teens in our care are safe, and our campus experienced only minimal operational interruptions." So it doesn't seem that the hurricane hit that specific area very hard. Of course we don't know where Dylan went so I am still worried that he might have been in harm's way. But I do take some positives from this comment.

I am not positive thats the center he ran away from ..there are a few on Whitaker .

 

[Snoopster]

I am not positive thats the center he ran away from ..there are a few on Whitaker .

Thanks for pointing that out. Are there others near Whitaker and Santa Barbara?

 

[Unalienable Rights]

I was surprised to see this. There is a mugshot of him in Lee County, FL, from May 13, 2023. He was arrested for battery on a person 65 years of age or older.

https://leefl.mugshots.zone/helms-dylan-kevin-mugshot-05-13-2023/

There are four cases in Lee County, FL court records under the name Dylan Kevin Helms, but the details are confidential.

https://matrix.leeclerk.org/

 

[Soulmagent]

I was surprised to see this. There is a mugshot of him in Lee County, FL, from May 13, 2023. He was arrested for battery on a person 65 years of age or older.

https://leefl.mugshots.zone/helms-dylan-kevin-mugshot-05-13-2023/

There are four cases in Lee County, FL court records under the name Dylan Kevin Helms, but the details are confidential.

https://matrix.leeclerk.org/

Any awards in civil ?
Also his mug shot does not look that great, looks like things have gotten better and worse at the same time .

 

[Goecke]

I'm a wheelchair user, I have both a manual wheelchair and an electric one. The electric one can go ~5 mph max, and has good brakes, so I don't go faster going down hills. My pace in my manual chair might be a little faster than the average person's walking pace if I'm on flat, even ground. However, if I was trying to run away from someone like Dylan was, the average person could easily catch up to me. Even with the upper body/arm strength I've built up, I still fatigue faster than the average person would while walking.

The only thing is that in my manual chair, I am SILENT. Because you can't hear footsteps, it can be easy to "lose" a wheelchair user, or have them sneak up on you. So it could be possible that he relied more on stealth instead of this being a high-speed chase like the articles are making it out to be. It still seems unlikely, but it's something to consider.

 

[ApartoftheNarrative]

Local here. I live about 10 minutes from Santa Barbara and Whitaker. Area is about 8 miles inland and we barely saw any damage from the hurricane. No known flooding in that area either from what I’ve seen. Roads are very flat too so I’m curious as to how he got away without being seen. Santa Barbara Blvd is a busy road this time of year and connected to all the major roadways around here. Name changes a few times (St. Andrew’s Blvd, Santa Barbara Blvd, then Logan Blvd.) but it’s a large road nonetheless. Whitaker is not as large but then again, he was on a decent corner to be seen by someone.

 

[ApartoftheNarrative]

Adding to this, Davis Blvd is the next major road just a little north of this intersection this is a large intersection that I even refuse to walk across as people just don’t stop all the way. Hopefully nothing bad happened up that direction.